


His Father's Sword

by bessemerprocess



Category: Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Gen, Yuletide, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-02 20:50:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel Carpenter thought he was the normal one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Father's Sword

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to severuslovesme for the amazing beta job. This fic was written as a stocking stuffer for yuletide '08 for Semmi.

Daniel always though he'd be the normal one: the good son, the steady student, and hopefully someday the loving husband. He'd never seen supernatural powers in his future. He had seen college and then a job and then a wife. A normal life. The sword brought an end to all of that. Amoracchius. His father's sword, that God had let him lay down to once again take up the full mantel of being a father and husband. Daniel knows if his father had known the sword would go to him, he would have never given it up. Not that his father had much of a choice; he's still learning how to walk again.

His father is conflicted about him being a Knight. Being someone who goes out and battles the powers of darkness whenever he is needed. His dad had fought for him to have a normal life, especially after Molly turned out not to be all that normal. Not that his father would ever say that. Instead, he had told Daniel how proud he was, how much he loved him and how he hoped God would keep Daniel safe.

He was brought up in the Church. Even if his father hadn't been a Knight of the Cross, the Church would have wound itself through the daily life of the Carpenter family, but how can you deny God when he talks to your father? So, when God calls, Daniel answers. With trepidation to be sure, but he takes the sword from Harry Dresden's hand and feels the clarion call of the angel's trumpets reverberate through his body.

His mother makes his armor and surcoat. She says that a mother's love is almost as good protection as Kevlar and steel. Molly tells him Harry agrees. Daniel doesn't really understand magic, but anything his mother and Harry agree on must be true.

Molly is helping him on the magic front. He has a little of it as his own. Not enough to be White Council, not even enough to float a pencil, but with Amoracchius in his hand, who knows what he will need and how that need will be met, so he endeavors to learn it all. The games of their childhood have turned serious. Harry takes them out to the back yard and tells Molly to hide. Daniel has played hide and seek in this back yard before many times, but never before has his sister turned invisible, and never before has he had a sword strapped to his back.

These games are training, for all that the younger kids come out to play sometimes. Harry is careful with them all, but especially with Matthew. Matthew is just learning how to be the one in charge now that Molly and Daniel are moving out into the world and he watches them both with an eagle eye. Molly points it out to him after a serious game of tag. Matthew's eyes follow Daniel every time he picks little Harry up and spins him around and Molly every time she kneels to help Hope tie her shoes like he's saving it all up in his head for when it's his turn.

Matthew comes to watch when their mother and Harry team up for sword practice as well. Molly isn't very good at it, she couldn't best Harry on even his worst day. Their mother, however, is grace in motion. She could out fight Harry with a sword any day. Daniel is getting better. Soon, their mother won't be able to defeat him at all. Soon, he'll be ready to go out with Sanya and truly do God's work.

He looks at Matthew, and he hope God gives him a few more days, a few more weeks. Of all the things Daniel is nervous about, all the monsters, the vampires, the fallen angels, it's laying down his mantle as big brother that worries him the most. Knowing that by taking up his father's sword he must pass his other responsibilities on to Matthew is the only regret he has.

Most Knights do not live to a ripe old age, so in the moments between practice and sleep, Daniel spends his time with his family. He doesn't know if he'll die that first time out, but he does know that this training period is a gift from God and that he should use it wisely. And at last, when it's finally time to go he tells Matthew what a responsible and loving young man he is turning into; Alicia how strong she is and how smart; Amanda that she is brave and beautiful. He just holds Hope and Harry to his chest and knows someday they will understand. He thanks Molly, for being his big sister, for walking the trail ahead of him, for coming back to them and they too hug. His parents both kiss him, lingering over their baby boy, and Harry gives him a firm handshake.

Daniel dons his armor and then he walk into battle for the first time, ready.


End file.
